The evolutionary responses of life‐history strategies to climatic variability in flowering plants

Abstract

Summary The evolution of annual or perennial strategies in flowering plants likely depends on a broad array of temperature and precipitation variables. Previous documented climate life‐history correlations in explicit phylogenetic frameworks have been limited to certain clades and geographic regions. To gain insights which generalize to multiple lineages we employ a multi‐clade approach analyzing 32 groups of angiosperms across eight climatic variables. We utilize a recently developed method that accounts for the joint evolution of continuous and discrete traits to evaluate two hypotheses: annuals tend to evolve in highly seasonal regions prone to extreme heat and drought; and annuals tend to have faster rates of climatic niche evolution than perennials. We find that temperature, particularly highest temperature of the warmest month, is the most consistent climatic factor influencing the evolution of annual strategy in flowering plants. Unexpectedly, we do not find significant differences in rates of climatic niche evolution between perennial and annual lineages. We propose that annuals are consistently favored in areas prone to extreme heat due to their ability to escape heat stress as seeds, but they tend to be outcompeted by perennials in regions where extreme heat is uncommon or nonexistent.